Change of Shift

Change of Shift, a carnival of articles by nurses and about nursing, is up at Emergiblog. Clinical nursing is hard work and some of the articles in this collection give a real sense of nursing life, both funny and painful. One of the most powerful posts was at About A Nurse, discussing the H in Nursing.

There are three Hs in nursing. In no particular order, they are:

Head.

Heart.

Hands.

To be a good nurse, one has to have the balance of three.

One must know enough, care enough, do enough.

Too much of one and lacking of the others is not good.

The key is balance.

Knowledgeable. To give informations to a patient who fears the unknown.

Compassionate. To be there when a patient fears what he knows.

Capable. To do things for a patient who cannot....

She then describes a not uncommon shift — an eye-opener which will give anyone a better appreciation for their nurse the next time they’re in the hospital.

Five RNs, 20 patients, mostly total care. No patient care assistant. In a nutshell, out of the 12 hour shift, I was on my feet for 11 hours...All the nurses went home weary.

Our Heads hurt.

Our Hearts heavy.

Our Hands sore.

We did not really care that we were not good nurses. For the most part, we just felt sorry for the patients.

Thank you, Kim, for including two of my articles in this edition of Change of Shift — What if you could pop a pill and lose weight? and Fear is terribly catching, bird flu isn’t.